Training Method

Before training a performer, you must have good quality breeding stock.  The breed that I have had for over 15 years is the Iranian Highflying Tumblers, these pigeons are kept for their endurance and flying ability.  Raising good flyers depend on the quality of birds and also the training methods. 

My training method

When the babies are about three weeks old I clean the nest and throw away all the nesting material, every day I put seeds in the nest box and watch the babies carefully picking up the seeds.  When I see them eating, I separate the youngsters from their parents.  This is the most critical time of my training;  I  use a trap to allow my birds to go to their loft after their flight.   Once the babies are separated I feed them in the evening.  After a few days I introduce my youngsters to the outside world, I put them on top of the coop (close to feeding time) for an hour or so.   When it is feeding time I put an older female on top of the coop and put feed inside the coop and call the older hens in.  When they hear the signal they rush to the loft through the trap door, the youngsters eventually will follow them.  At about 5 weeks old my youngsters are used to the trap door and they are familiar with the rooftop and also they all have taken to the air once or twice.  I try to get my youngsters to stay up in the air for a longer period of time, so I fly them with an older experienced female.  I only fly a few youngsters at a time, this way if something goes wrong I won't lose a lot of my birds.  By the sixth week my birds have already flown for an hour or so.  I start flying them with older birds so they learn to tumble.    When they fly you can see their hours increasing and you can see them ride their tails, after a month of tail riding they start performing (some start performing after 15 days and some do not perform for about two months).  During long days I fly my birds 3 days and rest them for 2 days, the Iran tumblers really prove themselves after the first years or so.  Unlike the tipplers the Tehran tumblers take a full year to prove their flying ability.  I still get around 6 to 8 hours from my birds at about 5 to 6 months old and if I keep flying them by end of the first year I should be able to get 10 or more hours.  Please note that I live in northern California and I am blessed with the great weather all year so my birds will fly much longer than places that are hot and humid.  The biggest challenge I have is to find ways to save my birds from hawks.  I keep pigeons because I love the way they perform. I have never been into showing pigeons, I believe it is a waste when great birds are used for show.  It is unfortunate to see many of the ancient breeds not being able to perform because they have been breed for shows.